The effort of trying to find a date that works for everyone is almost enough to put you off wanting to make plans in the first place. The endless group chat messages, polls that get lost in the back-and-forth, and even resorting to spreadsheets to manually input and visualise everyone’s availability… it’s a lot.

But don’t get so worked up, there are easier ways to find when everyone in your group is free without needing to cycle between 3,148 apps 🧚‍♀️

So, how are people finding what dates work best for everyone in the group?

Group chats are great… until you’re trying to make plans

Dropping messages into the main group chat for plans happens all the time. The group’s already on it and you don’t need to go hunting everyone down - but how many of these plans actually end up happening?

For the most part, group chat plans never end up happening. The chat gets annoying with hundreds of back-and-forth messages, the information gets lost in about ten minutes, the same questions get asked over and over, and there’s always someone who chimes in an hour later to say they can’t do the agreed date, taking you all back to square one…

But there are websites for this, right? 

Do you know what’s more effort than keeping up with the group chat? Trying to hunt down a website or poll to share with with your friends, and then getting them to actually fill it out.

They’re either too professional for a friends get-together (way too weird to send a Calendly link for ‘Girl dinner 🎀🍽️’) or you’re getting spammed by ads (Doodle polls sound great in theory, don’t get us wrong… but those intrusive ads are killer 🫠).

You could go the robot route and set up a spreadsheet to log the time everyone is free. Once you find a template online, you need to get all of your friends to check their calendars or planners and then head back to the sheet to input the dates that their free. Then all you have to do is work out what date most people are free before availabilities change again.

You could share your Google work calendar, right?

But… my boss lives there?

There’s something hauntingly corporate about booking in your girls night out and hungover debriefs in the same place as your big meeting and 1:1 with the boss on Monday.

Imagine trying to book in your wild girls night out drinks on a Thursday, and you’re hit with the meetings you have the next day… yeah. Not a great start.

And sending an official calendar invite for a social plan… just feels wrong 😳

Introducing ✨Howbout✨

Howbout’s the social calendar to share time with friends and actually keep up with each others’ lives. With Howbout, you can easily see what your friends have got going on, make plans and spend more time together. Basically, the best way to find a date where you and your mates are all free without being spammed with ads or feeling too corporate.

Add all your social plans and personal plans can all be kept together in the app, and Howbout can instantly tell you when everyone’s free. Share your full calendar or just your availability with any of your friends without feeling like you’re sending them a meeting invite for appraisal with their boss.

And if there are multiple options for dates that work, you can easily share polls with the whole group. All 100% free with no ads.

Want a deeper look into the app?

Shared calendars: Share your calendar with friends to make see what they’re up to and make plans together. Don’t worry, you always have full control of who can see what!

Instant availability: Howbout takes into account all your availability and will instantly output when works best for you and the whole group!

Time polls: Got a couple of options that work? Howbout has in-built polls so your friends can vote on which dates they’d prefer. The poll directly links in with your availability so voting is even simpler.

Invites: Whether your friends are on Howbout or not, you can easily send them invites by link wherever you’re already chatting.

Plan details: Once the details are sorted, they’re all saved together on Howbout. No more “What time is it again?” or “Where are we meeting” messages.

Built-in chats: Howbout’s got you covered with an automatic chat for every plan. You can share polls, gifs, videos and pictures with the whole group easily. As we said… Howbout was made for you and your besties.

So, what are you still doing here?

Howbout is available on iOS and Android and is 100% free! Start sharing your time with your friends now (trust us… it’ll be quicker than finding this blog in the first place 😏).